Humans have used many release and arresting systems throughout history, to include nets for fishing, and snares for hunting, leading to harpoons, spears, ropes, and myriad other means to capture a desired moving object. Most prior art is concerned with capturing a moving object, with little regard to avoid harming the target, and even fewer contemplating later release as well. As reusable devices proliferated in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, the need for release systems increased ever so slightly. With the advent of autonomous moving objects, that are reusable, the need increased dramatically, with few precedent systems to solve very high speed capture without destroying the moving object. One subset of moving objects, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), had initial technology focused on landing and take-off to runways with remotely piloted or autonomous control. With the advent of precision relative navigation allowing moving objects to align very accurately with a specific point in space relative to another object, non-destructive systems are increasingly useful for capturing and releasing moving objects.
Historical attempts for launch and recovery systems, excluding runway and aircraft carrier landings, for manned and unmanned UAV fall into two categories of hosts. The first is a slow-speed or stationary host (such as a naval vessel or army truck or ground stand), or a high-speed host (such as another UAV, a Bomber or Cargo aircraft). The former have been somewhat successful with netting and hooking solutions, even though UAVs are sometimes harmed or destroyed in the process, while the latter have been largely unsuccessful (with aerial refueling being the primary success).
In high-speed host cases, launch and recovery solutions are largely constrained by these factors: relative positioning navigation technology; timing of release and capture; aerodynamic interference between the aerial vehicle and the host; and structural issues and weight, compounded in most cases by speed differentials and ensuing force loads between the aerial vehicle and the launch/recovery vehicle.
While many attempts at launch and recovery of aircraft with a host have been envisioned, none have proven practicable at overcoming the four constraints above, simultaneously. For example, the Fighter Conveyor (FICON) program in the late 1940s produced the XF-85 Goblin fighter aircraft for internal carriage to a B-36. This trapeze and hook system attempted to use a manned parasite fighter to overcome the four constraints above. Relative positioning was accomplished with a man in the loop, the timing of capture and release was solved by a trapeze and hook design, but the aerodynamic and structural issues were problematic. In fact, even after an inflight collision and redesign, the FICON program was cancelled because it caused more problems than it solved. The costs outweighed the benefits in the final analysis, even if safety could have been assured. The key problem identified in the FICON program, as well as other examples since, highlights the very real problems around recovery operations between to moving objects. Dramatic modifications and trade-offs to the aircraft and host have been required to achieve safe, repeatable, reliable recovery. Complexity, both in design and operational concepts, and untenable weight growth ensued.